Tuesday, September 29, 2015

... and blessedly few people, which is probably why the deer and turkeys were out and about.

Caught a short break in the rain, so I popped down to the Corning Preserve for a short ride. Light rain kicked back in as I was heading over the Schuyler Flatts, but only enough to make the 2nd half of the ride damp rather than soaked and uncomfortable.

In some ways the path through the preserve is really nice, with the Hudson River alongside and a fair amount of nature and occasional wildlife. Unfortunately, the constant drone of traffic on I787 does make it a little less pleasant, and some of the sections of pavement really need to be replaced - there's a lot of root buckling. But it does have the advantage of being relatively close and a fairly easy ride.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Sunday, September 27, 2015

SUPERMOON LUNAR ECLIPSESunday, September 27, 2015

Tonight's lunar eclipse of the harvest "supermoon" (the harvest moon being the 1st full moon after the fall equinox, and the "supermoon" being a full moon when it's closest to the Earth in its orbit and thus appears slightly larger than usual) was a common topic on the radio over the last two days. If I were more ambitious (and less tired and sore) I'd drive over to the bike path where it's a bit darker to take a look. As it stands, I'm settling for walking over to nearby Ridgefield Park before and during the eclipse to take a look and a few photos, despite having to put up with the Albany lights.

BEFORE:A nice bright full moon... unfortunately, the only big patch of clouds in the sky is right around the moon. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll drift away before the eclipse hits totality.

DURING: Cool... the clouds moved off. I got back to the park about 20 minutes after the eclipse started, and found several groups of people there watching the show, as well as groups out on the sidewalk and upstairs porches along the way. Guess people are interested in this... unfortunately, night shots are always iffy, and this batch didn't come out as good as the earlier ones.

In about another 40 minutes the moon should be completely in the Earth's shadow...

When I went back out 30 minutes later the moon was mostly eclipsed, with just a sliver still lit.

And after half an hour - the eclipse is darn near total, and I've have enough. Time to go home and go to bed (since the moon won't start coming out of the Earth's shadow for another hour or so... too late for me to stay up and watch tonight!)

Monday, September 21, 2015

Not nearly as bad as I expected them to be after 14+ miles of races over two days, but maybe that's because I "fast hiked" so much (since the single track was often too gnarly or too hilly for me to run with my grumbling knees.) Being on my feet at school wasn't bad, but walking around Buckingham was definitely work. I may have to change my plan to do an easy run tomorrow to an easy ride.

Buckingham was quieter than the last two times I went there. I'm surprised at how few ducks there are (three today.) I did spot a huge orange carp feeding right near shore... eventually I think he realized I was standing there and headed for deeper water.

Monday, September 07, 2015

Or rather, I finally finished watching The Hobbit. I started two days ago.

I waited for so long because I expected to want to sit down and pay fairly close attention. I really enjoyed The Lord of the Rings, so I figured this was a no-brainer.

In the end, I needed three days because they are bloody long movies (1st two almost 3 hours, last one almost 2 1/2 hours) - and I found myself needing to pause the DVD and take a break periodically. And I mean a long break, not just a "pop off to the kitchen" type of thing. Took me most of a day to finally get around to watching each one.

There were definitely things I liked about the movies, but overall - it was too much of almost everything. This should have been one long movie (maybe just under 3 hours) or two short ones (90 min or so each.) Too much added material. Too many huge sweeping shots to show us how amazing this world they've created is (and yes, I do want to get to New Zealand someday.) Too many battles that went on and on and on. Too much tying everything into being a precursor to The Lord of the Rings. It seems like the filmmakers looked at all the cool stuff they managed to do in the previous movies and decided that everything had to be 10 times as amazing for this one... and instead a lot of it just ended up seeming over-the-top instead.

I'm not surprised that where each of the LOTR movies made more than its predecessor, each of these made less. And I'm really glad I waited to watch them at home, instead of going to the cinema... sitting through these in a movie theater would have been torture.

With The Lord of the Rings, I found the extended editions to be better than the theatrical - there was a little more room for some character development and for things to breathe a bit. In this case... I think it's going to be a good while before I watch the extended editions - and I'll probably see them separately, rather than back-to-back.

Oh, well. If I have the time and ability to grumble about a movie trilogy, I've got it pretty good. Especially since it's back to work tomorrow, with school starting for real on Thursday.

SLOW GOING IS BETTER THAN NOT GOING AT ALL...7 Mile Run at Thacher ParkMonday, September 7, 2015

And very slow going it was, between being a bit tired and wobbly still, some gunk in my lungs that is still loosening up, and a left knee that was grumbling loudly during my walking warmup (but thankfully behaved itself during the run.)

I parked above the Haile's Cave picnic area and headed out on the northern trails - a bit of the ILTR15k course, then off to the old quarry and looping down past the High Point overlook and back on the Long Path and mountain bike trails. Spotted a few riders heading in as I was changing clothes, and passed a few hikers coming from the opposite direction in the first mile or so - but after that didn't see another person, just the way I like it.

The knee worries me a bit - it's acting like my right knee did a few years back, just before it went out completely and took the better part of a year before I could do much running again - in fact, in a lot of ways I'm still coming back from that injury (hindered by getting sick last fall and aggravating my knees repeatedly this summer doing non-running stuff like moving furniture and boxes around.) So I guess the lesson is - pay attention to it and do what I can to not have it end up like my right knee, even if that means further setbacks to my running plans this fall.

Despite that, it was great to be running at Thacher, especially considering the condition I was in less than a week ago.

Sunday, September 06, 2015

Lots of people at the park this evening, but almost no one over by the entrance to the Pine Bush (and on the mile or so of trails I wallked.) In the end, though, I think I'm better off running here, except perhaps in cold weather, when there are sometimes interesting birds on the lake.

Only one heron in sight in the old canal on my way out, but when I got to the section on the west side of Rotterdam Junction, I spotted three herons and a trio of egrets. Of course, the latter means summer is truly ending, since I don't typically see many egrets around here until they migrate back through to wherever they go south for the winter.

On my way back east, there were two herons and a pair of green herons in the old canal. Not as many wood ducks in sight - I'm guessing that as they get more mobile (ie. can fly better) they spend more time under cover.

The "new" crossing at route 5S looks like it could actually be a big improvement - mostly because they've installed user-activated lights. Of course, drivers will still need to actually pay attention to the lights - and we'll see if they hold up to local vandals (because there's inevitably going to be those.)

Legs were grumbling after only a dozen miles of very easy riding... I'm definitely not healthy yet... but still much better than the past few days.

No fever since yesterday morning! I've still got some minor stuff going on but being fever free is a huge improvement.Though I must admit a small part of me will miss the ibuprofen, which not only knocked down my fever but also got rid of my myriad other aches and pains while it was in my system...JMH

Saturday, September 05, 2015

Slight fever when I woke up but it didn't get worse as the morning progressed. I still took an ibuprofen after eating lunch, so that I'd be better able to get outside, and felt well enough that it was worth attempting a slow easy ride.

Along the way I spotted wood ducks, several herons, and an egret. The surprise was seeing a heron on the grassy hillside of the old landfill - I'm guessing he was hunting the leopard frogs that seem to be abundant in a lot of grassy areas near water.

All told it was good to be out on the bike again, even if I was slower and slightly more wobbly than usual.

Friday, September 04, 2015

A few small improvements... slept a little better last night (though still not like I wish I could) and when I got up this morning, I wasn't running a fever... that kicked back in after an hour, but then started to go down two hours later, at which point I popped an ibuprofen tablet and was fever-free for around 6 hours (including the first 90 minutes where I was oozing water out of every pore to cool down... I've grown really sick of being sopping wet and even bought more towels today because I've soaked every one here multiple times since Tuesday morning.)

Went back to Five Rivers and walked some of the fields and woods, as well as the ponds on the main property, then headed down for a quick spin past the Heron Pond (where I watched the heron catch and gulp down a fish very small snapping turtle - that's got to hurt to digest!) and the Beaver Pond. Also saw a small (hand-sized) snapping turtle in the Recharge Ponds, but he zoomed away for deeper water like he had a rocket pack as soon as I tried to get close enough to get a photo.

Thursday, September 03, 2015

Today my fever starting following a different pattern, spiking and then dropping on its own. Maybe my system is starting to get a handle on whatever's got it's claws in me.

Took an ibuprofen when it started dropping this afternoon, and felt well enough to go to Five Rivers - which also meant I could stop at the Bethlehem Price Chopper on the way home, they have a much better selection than the dinky store down the street from me.

Unfortunately I got there just as a severe thunderstorm warning was announced - it hit about 3/10 of a mile into my walk. Popped my umbrella, but the rain got harder and harder, and the wind started blowing, so I hunkered down under a somewhat sheltered section of the Beaver Pond Trail... and watched the rain get worse and even turn to hail for a while. Even the frogs were heading for higher ground, which is definitely bizarre if you think about it.Actually, after cooking in my own body for the past three days - being out in a chilly rain and hail storm felt pretty darn good.

After waiting about 10 minutes I gave up and headed back to the car. Of course the rain started dying down by the time I got there... but since I was pretty wet I decided to head to the store and home.

Except - when I got out of the store it wasn't raining, so I decided to go back to Five Rivers and walked the entire Beaver Pond loop - they've finally rebuilt the bridge at the spillway!

After that I was feeling a bit of a chill (usually a sign that my fever is going to go back up) so I did the smart thing and headed home.

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

It's not looking like it's going to pass quickly. In fact, it's behaving EXACTLY the same as my bout of the flu a little less than a year ago. Joy.

I had hoped to walk around the pond twice, but the ibuprofen I took a while before leaving the house hadn't kicked in yet, so I was pretty wiped out and decided not to push it. Not many people at the pond today, which was nice.

I did walk by two groups of runners - one a bunch of high school girls, probably training for XC, and the other a pair, maybe college age or a bit older, who both aggravated me by almost running into me in their determination to move aside as little as possible, despite the fact that I was right at the edge of my side of the path. I see the same thing a lot on the bike path, with riders buzzing down a busy path at 15-20 mph and passing people with inches to spare. I don't get it. Or maybe I do - it's another example of people being self-centered a-holes, so wrapped up in their own thing that they don't give a thought to the effect on the people around them.

Not that pedestrians are immune... there have been more than a few occasions where groups of people were taking up the entire bike path who barely move aside enough for me to ride past them, despite advance warning.

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

SUMMER ENDS WITH A WHIMPER RATHER THAN A BANG...Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Woke up in the middle of the night feeling mildly crappy and even more so this morning. Feels a lot like the flu did last fall... ugh. So no run or ride today, and unless it passes quickly - my plans to do a long run on the AT and a long ride on the Hurley-Marbletown Rail Trail this week will most likely have to be put on hold.